Unconditional
by kwritten
Summary: Snow White thinks back on her life


**Title: **Unconditional Strength  
**Fandom:** _Snow White and the Huntsman_

**Rating and warnings: **PG

**Word count:** 520

**Medium:** Fic/drabble

**_Summary_**_: Snow White thinks back on her life_

_Unconditional Strength._

Those were the only words that she could think to describe him by. Words never escaped her in his presence, he was easy and light in a world that was hard, he listen when the world roared around their ears. He was the hardest man she'd ever know, and burned the brightest. There were no other words she could fathom to explain his presence to others. To the questioning diplomats, ambassadors, court ladies, townspeople. Most days, she merely referred to him as "My Huntsman."

Together they fought wars... Wars of poverty and terror and fear and oppression. Wars that were fought only with words in open rooms where there was only she and her silent shadow. Wars that held blood and fire and tears and dirt. Wars that left her bereft and broken and empty.

Wars. Always with her shadow.

She was the raven to his sun, he was the shadow to her brightness.

He stood beside her at their wedding, he gave her away. She clung to his hand in childbirth and broke his fingers with her pain. She wept into his shoulder when her children died, when they grew, when they fought, when they flourished. She gave them to him as easily as a mother bird gives meals to her young.

Together they buried her husband.

When his beard had grown grey and the wrinkles around his eyes spoke of the ghosts of smiles. When her body had lost its slimness and agility and her hands shook. Together they stood over the grave of the man they loved. And he held her hand. And their children crowded to their sides, all of them as wild as he, as fierce as her, as passionate as him in the grave.

_Unconditional Strength. _

It poured out of him and into her, into her family, into her kingdom. And from it she drew the ability to love herself.

Love the girl locked in a tower.

Love the young woman on the battle field.

Love the queen bound to her throne.

Love the mistakes of innocence, the mistakes of age, the humanity that defined and undermined her goodness.

His strength always a rock to place her feet upon. That fragile thread that held her chin up so high when she felt like falling to her knees. The feather that floated behind her as she slew dragons, blowing in the breeze she wrecked with her blade and her words.

She spoke these words in am aged whisper to a young grandchild, "Seek the man who will give you Unconditional Strength."

"Queen Mother," the schoolgirl giggled. "You mean Unconditional Love."

But the old woman just smiled and thought of her man with the golden hair who had raised her children and defended her nation. She thought of the man with the dark eyes who whispered sweet words to her in the dark, who embraced her with his Passion.

"There will always be men to love you, my girl. But a man who will give you his strength as if it were your own. This is the man who will wake you when you lose all hope."

But the child did not hear, she scampered away, ready to give her heart away. Ready to lose herself to a fairy tale. While the Warrior Princess of yester-year drifted into memories long forgotten, her own story perverted into a tale for schoolchildren that no longer mentioned her Knight.

**Author's Note:** I've been trying to come to terms with my epic ~feels about this film for months now... this is as close as I'm ever going to get to any consensus. At first, I felt as though the casting was all wrong - Stewart was too old, Hemsworth too young - there was confusion in the text, there was editing/writing issues, the ending felt off, there was a scene missing... And I had intended on rewriting the film to suit my needs. Make Snow and Eric more distant in age - so that the relationship would make more sense (I don't see a sexy vibe between Snow and Eric, even though there was some muddled things there because Hemsworth is so amazing and Stewart is so delightfully awkward). But then ... okay. Well, in the last couple of weeks I have FALLEN IN LOVE with Stewart. Partially because everyone is beating down on her. Partially because I realized how AWKWARD and BIZARRE she is! Seriously, this girl /fails. She is _not_ really Hollywood-beautiful. She's strong in odd ways, she's described as sexual - but all I get is this wonderful gangly-awkwardness. And all of that is beautiful and lovely and I'm ashamed that I didn't love her before.  
Bottom line: I wrote this today on the bus while thinking about something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. IDEK what I was thinking about.

But here it is: fic from a bus.


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